As a specimen of the political news strained through the brains of the people of Tuat, I may mention that the Tuatee, recently arrived here, reports that "the King of the Frenchmen has run away to England, and carried with him all the money of the French," and, moreover, that "as the French conquered Algiers by distributing large dollars to every one, and hold it by the same means, the French now having no money, must soon relinquish Algiers again to the hands of the Muslims."
4th.—The weather is getting colder and colder. The last few days have been quite chilly, with a strong wind blowing from the east. This morning it was quite uncomfortable, the thermometer having fallen for the first time to 60° at sunset. We started early, and made seven hours in a south-eastern direction. It was a nice ride; but as the day advanced we got much sunburnt. After three hours we passed on the left the little village Zouazgher. The caravan showed again very picturesquely, the burdens tumbling off from the donkeys in the most delightful confusion, and the girls squalling for help. I ate on the road some Soudan dates, as they are called by the Arabs, and found them pleasant—a sort of bitter sweet. The name of the tree and of the fruit is, in Bornou, bitu. In Haussa the tree has two names, aduwa and tinku. Our course to day was up a fine valley, down which the water in the rainy season runs from east to west. There was abundance of trees and herbage. At this place, however, lions abound, and last night a camel was eaten by them. We encamped opposite a mountain, rising pretty high in sugar-loaf shape, called Adudai. Over the carcase of the camel hovered a small flock of eagles.
A Bornouee fighi, called Mustapha, from the country Malămdi, west of Kuka, tells us he has been six months at Aghadez. According to him, the route from Aghadez to Timbuctoo is one month. It is open, and not dangerous. En-Noor, indeed, promised to send any of us by that route if we wished. There are few people on the route, and if you pay them a little money you pass unmolested. This Bornouese fighi is not equal to his brethren whom I saw in Tintalous. But I learnt from this itinerant pedagogue the interesting fact, that there are a great number of persons of his profession, all from Bornou, travelling about in Aheer. Light, therefore, is springing up from the interior, and spreading to the coast in an opposite direction to what it did in former times.
5th.—Warmer weather greeted us this morning. We stay here to-day. The place is called Tin-Tagannu, and is a large wady, full of herbage and trees. It is inhabited by a few shepherds. This place is said to have been the first of the inhabited localities in Aheer, although now shepherds only drive their flocks there; so that spots of earth have their seasons and fortunes in the Sahara as elsewhere. By the way, I must continue to call this Sahara. Although there are periodic rains, we are still without the influences of the Soudan climate, which begins at Damerghou and Zinder. At the present season no country can be more healthy than these Asbenouee valleys. I hear that nearly all the women, as well as the men, have left Tintalous, so that the town is a perfect desert. En-Noor has brought his wives and daughters, and our caravan is like the migration of the whole of the town going in quest of a new country.
A trap was set last night for the lion, but the king of beasts was too wise to be caught. En-Noor borrowed a gun of us to make this trap, which was of the following description. It was expected that the lion would come again to the carcase of the camel; so a hedge of thorns was made round the carcase with one opening, where was placed the muzzle of the gun, with a large piece of meat tied to the trigger, so that when he seized the meat he might fire off the deadly weapon against himself.
This is a fine place for doves, and Overweg shot half a dozen to-day. Our Tanelkum, Mousa, informs us of the right way of tending camels. They ought never to be tied, but allowed to roam at large. They require also to be led through the best valleys, being so far helpless in finding a good grazing-place for themselves. He showed us his camels, comparing them with ours. And certainly ours, which had their legs tied and were not guided to good herbage, could not bear comparison. But, of course, the business, the support, the riches of Mousa, are his camels. They occupy all his thoughts, and would appear, to a stranger, to be the end of his existence.
6th.—This morning at sunrise the thermometer was as low as 52° Fahrenheit. We shivered with cold.
Dr. Barth arrived early by way of Tintalous. He confirms the news that the Sultans of Aghadez and Asoudee have completely chastised all those tribes who stopped us on the road and levied black mail on us.